


Intersect

by Silverbreeze424



Category: Homestuck
Genre: A bit of dirkjake and a lil bit of calliroxy, Abusive Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, By which I mean Karkat is a dragon, Canonical Child Abuse, Dragon AU, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Trolls are dragons, and a tiny tiny bit of rosemary, none if these other relationships were suppose to happen except rosemary but here I am
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-06 01:41:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14631423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverbreeze424/pseuds/Silverbreeze424
Summary: Of course, the one time it was Dave’s turn to check the traps, it was also the one time they actually caught something. It wasn’t even something normal, like one of the giant wolves or deer or bears that wander the wacky forest that the Striders call home. It was a fucking dragon.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, homestuck is the year of our lord 2018. Sorry about that folks. That being said I’m super excited to be working on this! It’s all planned out, and hopefully I’ll be updating every other week? Probably not but a gal can dream.

Of course, the one time it was Dave’s turn to check the traps, it was also the one time they actually caught something. It wasn’t even something normal, like one of the giant wolves or deer or bears that wander the wacky forest that the Striders call home. It was a fucking dragon.

Bright red was the first thing Dave noticed. Bright red scales, bright red blood. Dave had seen a fair amount of dragons, but he’d never seen one so fucking red. There were burgundy dragons (he’s seen a few) but they were, as the name suggested, burgundy, not this red, not fresh blood red, candy red, bright, bright red. He’d never seen one so small either, or one so close up.

The thing was lying down on the forest floor, curled protectively around the paw caught in the oversized bear trap. One of its wings was torn as well, and several scars marred its back and long tail. The thing was beyond fucked up.

“Oh boy.” Dave said out loud, and the dragon jolted, as if it hadn’t noticed his presence before.

It growled something in a foreign tongue, and while Dave couldn’t understand dragon, he got the distinct feeling he was being cussed out.

“So, I think I’m supposed to kill you? Dragons are dangerous, and all that, so...” He shrugged, an attempt at nonchalance.

The dragon continued to speak in an angry tone, growling and struggling and trying to break free. Eventually, it’s efforts stopped and it lay their, panting like a dog, until it looked up at Dave. 

The expression in its eyes was way too human for Dave to be comfortable with. It looked so scared and lost and hopeless, like someone who had their whole life ripped away in one moment.

“Please...” it whimpered, and Dave almost flinched. It was speaking English, for sure, and that scared the shit out of Dave. It had a weird accent, clicks and growls almost burying the word. “Fast.” It continued, lifting its neck and revealing a chink in its scales, the perfect size for Dave to plunge his sword into.

“Shit dude, you can’t just lay the whole ‘speaking English’ thing on me on top of your weird human expressions and expect me to shove my sword in your throat!” Dave said, exasperated. He was slipping up. Where was his careful monotone when he needed it?

“Won’t?” The dragon tilted its head like a confused dog.

“Yeah, I mean, I should, but,” Dave made a noncommittal noise of distress. 

“Won’t.” The dragon confirmed, not looking as scared but looking twice as confused.

“Yeah, uh, no, I guess.”

He stepped towards the dragon before hesitating.

“You won’t like, kill me, when I free you, right. You’ll just skedaddle, leave me with nothing but memories or perhaps a draconic blessing for my help? Oh, and dragon blood on my hands, I guess, considering how much-“

The dragon snorted, clearly fed up with the rambling. “You.” It said. “Safe. Won’t hurt.”

“Cool, cool, so I guess I’ll just, uh.” He kneeled down, put his fingers in the blunt area between the teeth and pulled in either direction. After a mild struggle, he pulled it off and the dragon stumbled back a few steps. It opened its wings, gave them a mighty flap, and- nothing really happened. Dave barely felt a stiff breeze coming off the dang things. The wings were torn, and the dragon was weak, there was no way it could take off.

The dragon growled in its weird language, clearly upset and angry and helpless. 

“Look dude, I can’t really help you, ain’t got no magic dragon wing repairing tonics, and I can’t bring you home, strollin’ in like ‘sup motherfuckers my dragon bro is injured I know I ain’t supposed to let any trapped animals go, especially not dangerous ones, but cha’boy started talkin and lookin all pitiful and shit and I couldn’t just leave him there or kill him oh hey Bro what’s up looks like I’m the one who’ll die today since I’m such a fuckin coward that I can’t even kill a creature on its last legs of-‘ hey shit dude, you good?” The dragon had started pacing and growling and whispering since Dave had started talking, and now it had collapsed dramatically to the ground.

“Hurts.” The dragon explained, flicking its injured paw/foot/whatever. It then moved its paw to point at Dave. “Talk a lot. Annoying.”

Dave was lost for a second, before he huffed in laughter, his mouth not quite smiling but his eyes crinkling up in amusement. “Shit dude, that’s cold. I save your life and this is how you repay me?” He leaned back a bit and placed the back of his hand to his forehead. “Oh, woe is me, no affection granted even from the one-“ The dragon beat its tail against the ground in agitation, cutting Dave off.

”Heals quick.” The dragon explained, moving its wing to show that that was what it was talking about. “Hide until then?” It cocked its head again, either asking for Dave’s permission or assistance. 

“Uh, good luck with that dude, you’re kinda a big bright red dragon. Reptilian Clifford the big red dog up in this bitch. You don’t really blend in.”

The dragon’s face scrunched up as it thought about its options. Then he started to shrink, legs thinning and elongating, becoming more humanoid. Quite frankly, it was grotesque to look at, so Dave didn’t.

“Ok, cool, don’t dig the whole naked thing but ok.” Dave said, opening his eyes after a few moments as he took off his coat and threw it around the boy. Luckily, the dragon kid was small enough to get all his nonsense hidden by Dave’s hoodie.

Dragon kid sniffed the coat, putting his arms through the sleeves and zipping it up. He seemed to find it satisfactory as he buried his nose in the fabric of the hood. He still had all the injuries from his dragon form, and was currently soaking the thing in bright red blood. Oh well. He’d just steal one of Dirk’s.

Now that Dave didn’t have to look at the kid’s junk all the time, he got a good look at him. He was shorter than Dave, short and chubby to Dave’s tall and skinny. His skin was a dark brown, the color of coffee beans and his hair pitch black, unruly and curly and surprisingly soft looking. Once again, Dave couldn’t help but notice how different they were- dark skin as opposed to Dave’s albino white, his hair unkempt while Dave’s was perfectly styled. Their only similarity seemed to be in age, but Dave assumed that as a dragon, the mystery kid was much older than him.

“You got a name?” Dave asked.

The dragon released a short series of growls and clicks, which Dave assumed was just how the draconic language sounded. The closest Dave could get to pronouncing it was Karkat.

“Alright, Karkat,” He crinkled his nose in distaste at the blatant butchering of his name, but didn’t comment. “I’m Dave. I’ll take you to my place. Bro ‘n’ Dirk will be suspicious but I won’t let Bro hurt you or Dirk, I don’t know, do whatever he does. Dirk’s usually adventuring with his boyfriend anyway so it’s not really a problem.” Dave explained as he started to lead Karkat to his place of residence. “Just keep to yourself, stay in human mode and don’t talk and it’ll be chill.”

“No talk? Why?” Karkat asked.

“Yeah, because normal people don’t sound like a motherfuckin’ angry cicada-dog whenever they talk, might as well just makes big sign over your head that says ‘hey look, I’m a fuckin weirdo and I probably don’t come from here or anywhere on this Earth maybe!’” Dave rolled his eyes, and Karkat did the same thing, complete with a tongue sticking out. 

—

It took about a half hour to return to the Strider household. Dave knocked twice, before opening the door. Dirk was nowhere to be found, but Bro was leaning cooly against a wall of the entryway. Even without any change in facial expression, Dave could tell Bro was giving him a look of cold skepticism.

“So, I found a kid in the forest.” Dave said cooly, pointing back at Karkat, who kept his eyes locked on Bro.

Bro hummed in acknowledgement, and stepped away before either of them could register any sort of movement. Karkat growled at where Bro had once stood, and Dave pat his head, evoking a flinch from the dragon kid.

“It’s chill, he doesn’t talk much and he’s really fast. He’s ok with you stayin’, for now.” Karkat wasn’t reassured. He followed Dave quietly even so.

The house’s somewhat modern interior didn’t match the cabin-y aesthetic from the outside. In fact, it felt like the inside of the house wasn’t laid out in a way that would match with the outside. 

On couches and tables and light hardwood floors, there were all sorts of ridiculous items, from weird vaguely humanoid puppets, to swords and other blades, to pieces of cleanly cut metal and circuiting. Karkat stuck close to Dave and closely watched his step as they went up the stairs and in through a door on the right side of the hallway.

“Hi MTV welcome to my crib.” Dave said, fully aware of, but still disappointed in, the fact that the reference would soar right over the dragon’s head. Said dragon had a look around.

The room was dimly lit by red lights that sent shivers down Karkat’s spine. Against one wall of the room was some sort of elevated platform covered in knobs and buttons and disks. Wires ran across the stained carpet floor, from the Disk Platform to a weird sort of piece of semi-familiar-but-not-quite technology to many other mysterious objects. The wall across from the door had another elevated platform, a dark piece of cloth and a shelf full of parts of small and strange beasts. In one of the corners, there was a different sort of platform, covered by a thick patterned fabric.

“Sleep wherever, just not the bed. You can take the covers. Imma see if Dirk has any food, go ahead and settle in.”

Karkat chirped in acceptance, and moved under the desk. He didn’t know what Dave meant by ‘covers’ so he simply took off the jacket and curled up on top of it. It wasn’t comfortable, but Karkat was tired and in pain, and found himself drifting off anyways.

~~~

For a second when Dave entered his room, he was convinced he was the victim of the worlds weirdest crime. He could see the headline now, ‘Cool Forest Kid Takes in Dragon, Dragon Steals Jacket In The Crime Of The Century’. What an asshole.

Then he noticed a slight movement from beneath the desk, which upon closer examination was, in fact, the dragon boy. Karkat was sleeping on top of Dave’s jacket and beneath one of his many desk, and the boy looked... significantly scalier than before. Those weird candy-corn horns that all dragons had were sticking out of his mess of black hair. His face and shoulders were freckled with bright red scales, and while Dave was avoiding looking at his butt, it looked like Karkat was growing a tail. Seemed like he got more draconic the more relaxed and/or tired he was. Hopefully Bro and Dirk wouldn’t notice that.

Dave didn’t exactly feel comfortable going to sleep in the same room as a dragon, so he rolled into his side and stared sightlessly at his turntables across the room. The perfect opportunity to psychoanalyze himself. 

Now, Dave never was a fan of killing stuff. He was a protector at heart, Dirk had told him once, probably as a joke, but it was kinda true. Bro was fine with killing, maybe even relished it, and while Dirk was by no means a fan, he’d do what he had to to keep Bro sated and Dave fed. Their main source of revenue was Dirk selling either meat, pelts, or his inventions, after all. Whatever Bro did kept their house, but didn’t feed them. Dave wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t have enough money or didn’t care. He hoped it was the former, but he was growing increasingly unsure...

But even if Dave didn’t like to kill, he still would for the most part. He’d let out babies or parents (the child was rarely far behind), but a dragon? A dragon was dangerous, and Dave not only released it, but also invited it into his house. 

Dave liked to think he was a man of his word, but there was no way he could just... adopt a dragon as his roommate, right? He couldn’t go through with letting Karkat stay here until he healed. He’d take him into town tomorrow and figure out what to do from there.


	2. Chapter 2

Dave awoke to the distinct feeling that someone was looming over him. After living with Bro long enough, it was a feeling he had to deal with a lot, and a feeling that was often followed by the feeling of a sword dragged across his stomach.

So Dave had to react quickly. He had a sword beside his bed, shoved between the mattress and the wall, hilt pointed upwards, he could grab it and slash at Bro in a matter of seconds but would he be fast enough? There was no way to know but to try. He steadied himself then grabbed his sword and sliced up in a single moment, his sword hitting- flesh?

Shit, fuck, no, he’d never be able to hit Bro. He’d never hit him before, and he certainly wouldn’t now, Bro was always prepared, was it Dirk? Dirk knew better than to creep around, he entered every room fiddling loudly with something, Dave and Dirk never snuck around each other, they had promised not to-

There was a strange yelp and suddenly Dave knew exactly who he hit. There was a string of foreign noises, loud and unfamiliar and lined with clicks and growls.

Dave dropped the sword and stared at Karkat.

Said boy was on the ground, hissing and holding his bloody shoulder. All of his other wounds had scabbed over, which made this one stand out all the more- deep and bloody and god dammit Dave, what the shit.

“Shit dude, sorry about that.” And shit dude, he really was. Further evidence that he needed to get Karkat the fuck away from him before he killed the poor dude. “Come on bro, let’s get to the bathroom and patch ya up before you bleed out all over my nice carpeting.” The carpeting was not nice. There were plenty of blood stains already, but Dave was quite against adding more.

Karkat was still watching him with big brown eyes, huge and round and terrified, betrayed. He still followed when Dave left the room.

“Sit on the counter.” Dave ordered, and Karkat slowly, cautiously moved to do so, not taking his eyes off Dave. Dave pretended that didn’t hurt. It did.

After a few minutes of Dave rubbing antibiotics on Karkat’s wounds (Karkat was whining and undoubtedly cussing the whole time), Dave heard Dirk’s door open, followed by the tink-tink-tink of metal on metal, but in a wholly different way than the sword-clashing noises Dave had grown to associate with Bro.

“Who’s the boy?” He asked from the half-open bathroom door, monotone as ever, but with a hint of curiosity only Dave could pick up on.

“This is Karkat, I found him in the forest and we’re homies now. He doesn’t talk much. Or at all, really.” Dave lied as he continued to clean Karkat’s wounds and Karkat resisted making any noise in front of the stranger.

Dirk hummed in acknowledgement, but there was a lilt at the end of his tone that Dave recognized as cautious- not necessarily worried, but cautious.

“I’m gonna go out with Jake for awhile, see ya dude.” Dirk continued down the hall and towards the door. “I’ve got extra food under my bed and in the bottom left of my closet if you need any.”

Dave hummed, and the door clicked open, then closed.

"That’s Dirk. He’s chill.” Dave explained as he continued to finished up cleaning the wound and began to bandage them.

“Three... in one hive?” Karkat questioned, tilting his head and almost reopening a wound on his neck.

“What.” Dave replied monotonously. Usually it was easy enough to comprehend what Karkat was talking about, but now that he brought numbers and bees into the mix, Dave hadn’t the slightest clue what was going on.

“Dirk. Bro. You. Three. In one hive.” Karkat explained slowly, like Dave was an idiot. Which, hey, wasn’t too far off honestly.

“Oh, in one house.” He pieced together after a few moments. “Yeah dude, we’re a family.” Describing them that way... felt foreign to Dave. Sure, Bro was his father and Dirk was his brother, they were a family, but Dave had seen enough TV to know they weren’t a model family. 

“What’s...” Karkat mouthed the word a few times before actually saying it. “Family?” He finally got out.

Dave huffed. “That’s just about the saddest thing I’ve ever heard get said.” He pondered his answer for a moment, before starting to ramble. “They’re like, you know, the ones who are related to you. Like Bro’s my dad, he, you know, did the dirty with a gal and she gave birth to me and now I’m here and he’s my father, and that’s how Dirk came to be too, ya know? Did anyone ever tell you about the dragon birds and dragon bees? Because I’m really not willing to get into any more detail about Bro’s sex life than that, I have access to the internet, if you’re that curious you can just google it, as long as you don’t get in too deep and start jerkin’ it in my room, because gross-“

“What.” Karkat finally interrupted, cutting off the human’s rambles before it got any more disgusting and incomprehensible. 

“What what? I said a lot of things my dude, all hilarious and poignant, yeah, I know, but you’re gonna have to be more specific.”

“All. All things. You make no sense.”

“Hurtful. Bro’s my dad and Dirk’s my brother. What else is there to say?” Dave grew increasingly frustrated with the language barrier. “Dads, you know, take care of you, keep you safe, teach you the important life shit. That’s Bro.” That was not Bro, but that’s what a father was suppose to do. Dave wasn’t ready to regale Karkat on genres of dads and the intricacies of child abuse. (Which wasn’t what Bro was doing. He was teaching them. It was fine. Yep. Totally fine.)

Karkat just shook his head, puzzled.

“Don’t you have anyone to take care of you when you’re fresh out the vag? Or, egg, I guess, in your case.” 

Karkat shook his head again, looking more downtrodden this time. “Maybe most... dragons? do... I didn’t.” 

“Oh shit dude, we got a goddamn challenger coming for the ‘saddest thing I’ve ever heard get said’ trophy. Little word legs moving at the speed of sound, they’re neck and neck, it could go either way, but, oh wow, what an upset! Karkat’s latest sentence in the context of our current conversation takes the lead at the very end! And victory goes to the newbie! This is spectacular! Unprecedented! Absolutely amazing! You saw it here first folks, on the counter of Dave’s sick bathroom, which isn’t really that cool but is by extension, because it belongs to Dave Strider, the coolest man alive, that’s me.” Dave ended his rant by imitating a crowd roaring. 

Karkat just stared, his lip curled up in either confusion or disgust, but most likely both. “...Are you cold?” He asked, looking Dave up and down.

“Uh, no? Wh-“ Dave cut himself off as soon as he realized what Karkat meant. The dude knew that cool and cold are synonymous in certain contexts. Yet he didn’t know family or any related words. “Nah dude, I mean cool in like a rad way, a good way, you know? Whenever you think cool, just think of me, it’s just about as accurate as it gets.”

“Annoying?” Karkat asked, tilting his head. He seemed earnest enough for having said such a stinging roast. This kid wasn’t gonna let any language barrier come between him and his roasts.

“Ugh. Forget it.” Dave said, because he was done bandaging the guy and was ready to get him the fuck out of his house. “So listen dude- you gotta scadaddle. Got make like a tree and leaf. You gotta, uh, you gotta leave, that’s the main point. You can’t stay here.”

Karkat’s face scrunched up in betrayal. He looked so hurt, and goddamn was Dave glad this dragon was getting out of his life because wow did his scrunchy little emotionally volatile face do some Things to Dave.

“Listen dude, it’s for the best. If Bro finds out you’re a goddamn dragon he’s gonna lose his goddamn mind. And you’re gonna lose your goddamn life. And so am I probably.” Dave rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll take you to town, and you’ll find someone to stay with. They’ll give you proper meals and not accidentally slash you with swords and it’ll be rad.” 

“Trust...” Karkat’s face screwed up as he tried to find the words. “Trust you. Not... other.” He landed on, and met eyes with Dave. Dave had to look away. The fuck kinda dumbass would trust the guy who literally just slashed open their shoulder?

“Big mistake, Nubs. Do dragons have ridiculously short term memories? Because if you’ll recall, I cleaved your goddamn shoulder, like, an hour ago, so like, pretty sure you shouldn’t trust me. We can go to town and I can point out some random dude on the streets and he’d be more trustworthy then me. The fuck.” 

Karkat crinkled his nose, an action that Dave had started to associate with annoyance- crinkled nose, furrowed eyebrows, one corner of the lip raised in a sneer. “Less annoying, sure.” His face then fell back down to that sad look of disappointment and betrayal. “Ok. Take me to town.”

Dave didn’t feel bad. He didn’t. The only emotion he was experiencing was relief. Yeah. For sure.

—-

After getting Karkat dressed (in Dave’s clothes, which were simultaneously too tight and too long, and no, Dave did not think it was endearing, thank you), Dave began the journey to town, Karkat following close behind him as he glanced around with big, dark eyes. Dark eyes that were getting less human. Dark eyes that were surrounded by scales. Dark eyes on a face that now looked like a middle transition from boy to lizard on an Animorphs cover. What the fuck.

The further the pair got from the cabin, the less human Karkat got, and the more each breath rattled weakly in his chest. At this point, he was looking like some sort of dreadful lizard man, complete with misshapen wings sprouting from his shoulder blades, a strange lump visible through his shirt.

“Weird.” Karkat huffed, voice even less human then normal. “Hurts.” He continued as he stumbled forward. Dave didn’t support him, but he was prepared to in case he fell. 

“You’re getting real draconic my dude, think you can do something about that?” 

He nodded, still huffing, and the wings began to retreat in to his back, before he collapsed to his knees and the wings returned bigger than ever, tearing through the back of his shirt. Karkat coughed and hacked as his body grew, twisting and morphing and straining back in to his full dragon form. Once the transformation was complete, he collapsed completely, wounds reopened and clothes torn to shreds at his claws. 

“Alright, thanks, that’s literally the opposite of what I asked you to do but alright.” Dave said, trying for sarcasm and landing more in the field of concerned. Which he was. Concerned, that is. 

“Sorry.” The dragon panted, rising shakily back to his feet. He tried to keep walking forwards, but Dave placed a hand on his haunch and he paused.

“Listen dude, I think this was a bad idea. I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, but it seems an awful lot like the further you get from the cabin, the harder it is to do your weird dragon majicks. Or, the closer you get to town, maybe? Whatever. Doesn’t matter. Either way, we should go back.” 

“But-“

“Nah dude, no buts, not this time. I don’t even want to talk about my butt, your butt, or anyone else’s butt at the moment. Especially when your ass is all draconic and shit, it’s weird, how does- no, you know what, this is exactly what I was trying to avoid. No butt talk, this is a no butt talk zone. This whole forest is butt-talk free zone, and this rule applies to you just as much as it does to me. I’m done. No more talking about the forbidden subject.” Dave continued to talk about the logistics of his ass-conversation free zone as the two of them headed back to the house, Karkat having long since zoned out. The closer they got, the lighter the pressure in Karkat’s chest got, and the more in control of himself he felt. By the time the cabin was within view, Karkat was able to easily shift back in to human form.


	3. Chapter 3

In the week and four days following Karkat’s arrival, the two had become rather close. Spending eleven days in close proximity to another person did that, especially when both parties were as starved for any sort of affection as these two were. Neither of them were all that used to interaction with other people though, especially not of a foreign species, so most of their time was spent in silence. Dave would mix music or browse the internet or play video games, while Karkat would either stare out the window, nap, or watch whatever Dave was doing. He seemed particularly fascinated by Dave’s turntables, but Dave didn’t quite trust him enough to let him touch them yet. 

Time that wasn’t spent in silence was spent in stilted conversation. The two had reached an understanding of sorts- Dave tried to tone down the incomprehensible references and metaphors, and Karkat’s english was getting better every day. They rambled about mundane things, or chatted about the differences in their worlds- Dave realized that was definitely the way it was- dragons came from a whole different world or something. He didn’t really understand how that worked, but he didn’t think too hard about it- a waste of time and effort if you asked him.

From what Dave had gathered, the dragon world was cutthroat as hell. Violence and murder were pretty standard, as long as the ones killed were ‘low-bloods’, as Karkat described them. The whole dragon world seemed to work on a blood-color based system, and while Karkat didn’t talk about how he fit in, Dave could guess that he was low on the scale. After learning about Dragon World, he kinda understood why Karkat wasn’t too broken up about the whole sword-to-the-shoulder thing- that was pretty standard in the world of dragons. Karkat had told him about a pair of girls, his friends, who had permanently scarred and disabled each other and were still an unstoppable pair of friends. It also explained all the scars marring Karkat’s, well, everything- once again, pretty standard. 

Suddenly, Dave wasn’t really looking forward to Karkat being fully healed and returning ‘home’. 

Another thing Dave picked up on was Karkat’s hoarding habits. Dave’s hoodie that he leant Karkat the first day ended up in a ball on the ground under the desk. So did a blanket from the living room. A pretty leaf Karkat had picked up while they were out checking the traps. A role of bandages. A very smooth round rock. A piece of colored glass, edges long since softened with age. Anything that Karkat took interest in ended up in a pile under Dave’s desk, a pile that Karkat would sleep on every night. It didn’t seem all that comfortable, but Karkat seemed pretty proud of his little ‘hoard’, so he let it be.

—-

Currently, it was 12:53 AM, and the two boys were sitting on the couch. Dave was absentmindedly playing some game Dirk and him modded into an incomprehensible piece of nearly unplayable garbage, and Karkat was curled against the armrest like a cat, blinking slowly and drowsily. His horns were poking out of his unruly hair, and scales freckled the small bit of his profile Dave could see. A stubby tail had pushed his pants down a bit. Karkat’s occasional yawns revealed sharp teeth. 

Luckily, Dirk was still out with Jake, and Bro was just... out. Doing something that didn’t involve him being there. He did these little excursions for a few weeks at the beginning of every season- Dave knew it was coming as soon as the leaves had started to turn. He didn’t know what Bro was doing, nor did he particularly want to, but Dave was just glad his excursion coincided pretty well with the arrival of Karkat- being alone in the house was a weight off both the boy’s shoulders. He almost felt... relaxed, for once.

If Dave hadn’t been so uncharacteristically relaxed, he might have heard the soft thump of something in a room upstairs. He might have heard the gentle creak of a floorboard. He (and Karkat, by extension) might have been ready for someone coming down the stairs and right into the living room.

As it was, he wasn’t. He wasn’t ready until he heard feet take the first couple of steps down towards the living room. 

His entire body seized up in an instant, slamming down the d-pad and the a button so hard the game crashed (as he said- unplayable garbage). He dropped the controller half a second later, as he whipped around, grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and threw it over the sleepy and unaware Karkat sharing the couch with him. 

“Sorry bro, I wasn’t really sneaking but.” Dirk said as he paused near the base of the stairs. Dave relaxed, just a fraction. At least it was Dirk and not Bro. “Why’d you cover up your dude?” 

“Uh. He doesn’t like people looking at him when he’s asleep. All shy and shit I guess? He uh-“ He cut off as Karkat started growling under the blankets, clicking and cursing and struggling to get the thing off of him. Those noises were decidedly inhuman. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Dave froze and stared at him, completely helpless to do anything but watch as Karkat finally managed to poke his head out. He shook himself and glared at Dave. His eyes were fully red other than black pupils, his face was all scaly, his horns were sticking out. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

“What fuck?” He growled. Dave had, of course, taught him curse words almost immediately, but Karkat hadn’t quite nailed down the intricacies of fuck yet.

Karkat opened his mouth to continue cussing and yelling, but was cut off as a sword pressed against his throat and he went deathly still. It was terrifying to Dave, he was usually so animated, twitching even in his sleep. He didn’t like still Karkat. He liked the look of terror in his eyes even less. His least favorite part was the look of resignation under the fear, like part of him wasn’t afraid to die. Like he didn’t place much value on his life. Dave knew he didn’t.

Dirk stood behind the couch, the back of the couch serving as a barrier for him. He was holding a katana from the floor against Karkat’s slightly scaly throat. Bright red beaded up against the blade and trailed lazily down Karkat’s throat. Dirk’s face was perfectly neutral, other than the beads of sweat gathering on his forehead. 

“Dave. Get behind me.” Dirk ordered, using an unfamiliarly commanding voice.

“Dirk-“ Dave interjected, still frozen.

“Dave, please.” He said with a hint of desperation.

“No, Dirk, he’s- he’s not gonna hurt me.”

“It’s a fucking dragon, get the fuck behind me! I’m going to kill it.” Dirk’s hands trembled just a bit, digging the sword a little further into Karkat’s neck in an attempt to steady himself. Karkat closed his eyes and released a shaky breath. He accepted that Dirk would follow through on his promise. Dave hated that.

“N-no, you’re not.” 

He grabbed the sword and pulled it away from Karkat’s neck. No amount of callouses and scars on his hands could protect him from bleeding when he full on gripped a sword in his bare hands. Was this necessarily the best way to go about things? No, but it got his point across- Dave wasn’t going to let anyone hurt Karkat.

Said dragon instantly leaped off the couch and moved a few paces away, just out of Dirk’s reach. Dave let go of the sword, shook some of the blood off his hands, and placed himself between Dirk and Karkat.

The two brothers locked eyes and didn’t look away, just stared each other down through their shades. Dirk standing with a bloody katana in his hands made him look a little too much like Bro. Same sharp glasses, same sharp hair, same sharp blade, same same same same-

“It’s a dragon, Dave.” Bro never called him Dave. Bro never sounded so confused, so desperate. 

It was Dirk. He could handle Dirk.

“And you’re a human, Dirk.” He mimicked, trying to keep his voice from trembling as he continued. He could handle Dirk. “Last time I checked humans did a lot more damage to, uh, everything than dragons did. It’s been a week and a half. We share a room every night. If he wanted to hurt me, he would’ve, but hey, guess what! He hasn’t.”

Dirk stared at him a little longer, before sighing and stabbing his sword into the ground. Both Karkat and Dave flinched at the sound of the blade penetrating floor boards.

“Ok, fine.” He said, and stepped out from the behind the couch to sit down. He ran a hand through his hair, mushing it up a bit and making him look even less like Bro. Less like a threat. He wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t Bro. If he was Bro he’d be dead, and so would Karkat.

Dave sat down too, and Karkat sat down right next to him, clutching Dave’s sleeve in his hand like his life depended on it. His claws tore straight through the fabric, but neither of them either noticed or cared. 

“I’ve never seen a Strider give so many shits. Didn’t think that much shit existed in the whole family.” 

“He’s...” Dave struggled to find the words. “He’s my....” he tried again, to no avail.

“I think the word you’re looking for is friend, bro. He’s your friend.”

Dave nodded, feeling a little embarrassed, a little ashamed, a lot confused.

“It’s not a bad thing, Dave. Bro might try and convince you that friends and shit are worthless, that they’ll only get in your way or whatever but. It’s chill.” Dirk seemed just as uncomfortable with this as Dave was. “Do you think it’s weird that I’m friends with Jake? Do you think it makes me weaker?”

“No.” Dave answered instantly. Dirk wasn’t weak. Bro wasn’t weak. He was weak.

“Than why would you and Karkat be any different?”

Dave didn’t respond, just kept staring at the controller on the floor.

“You care about him.” Dirk said, standing up. “It’s good. To care about shit. I mean. And I won’t tell Bro.”

Dave nodded, and leaned into Karkat. Karkat leaned right back. 

—-

After That Night things changed, ever so slightly. Karkat added some new noises to his Foreign Dragon Bullshit portfolio. He made happy little trilling noises when he found new objects for his hoard, or Dave did something he enjoyed. His chest would rumble like a cat whenever he and Dave were comfortable and relaxed and near each other. He’d make these subtle little chirps when something really intrigued him. Dave put these new noises in the category of Absolutely Adorable and Potential Signs of Newfound Trust. 

They had also started doing more activities together- Dave taught Karkat how to mix music, though he quickly got frustrated with his own lack of talent and gave up, preferring to just listen to Dave instead. Dave would hand a controller to the dragon whenever he played a game that supported multiplayer. Karkat’s favorite so far was Mario Kart, as it seemed to be the easiest for him to grasp. The two of them got pretty damn competitive, and Karkat managed to hold his own pretty well despite his lack of experience. He tended to focus so much on the game that his concentrated scrunchy face would break out into scales. He was always careful to keep his hands purely human, though.

One night, after a fierce game of Mario Kart, Dave wasn’t tired enough to call it a night but also didn’t have the energy to interact with things. So he decided to pick a movie.

He and Karkat had watched a fair amount of TV together, mostly a lot of shitty ghost and cryptid hunting shows, but he hadn’t gone out of his way to chose something for the two of them to watch. Luckily, he knew exactly what to show Karkat.

—-

That night, Dave found out his favorite thing about Karkat- the dragon was obsessed with romances. It was somehow both the funniest and cutest shit he’d ever seen. He’d chosen the thing ironically, after it was bought ironically, for fucks sake! But Karkat genuinely loved the damn things.

At the beginning of the movie, Karkat was just curled up and blinking lazily at the TV like usual, but as soon as the two sentient saltines of main characters started to fall in love, Karkat’s entire demeanor changed. He sat up and leaned forward, hands gripping the couch in between his legs. His head was craned forward and his eyes were huge, taking in everything he could. His face was even more expressive then usual, showing each change in mood more vividly than anything on screen. He was crying along with every dip in the mood, and while Dave didn’t want to see his bud cry, it was kind of the funniest thing Dave had ever witnessed. The entire time he was making those intrigued chirping noises, and he couldn’t keep the excited trill out of his voice when he raved about the movie as soon as it was over. Karkat instantly added the CD case to his hoard but carefully placed it to the side so he didn’t break it.

It was, without a doubt, some of the funniest shit Dave had ever seen. The boy, the god damn dragon, was so fucking enthusiastic about romance movies of all things! It took all of Dave strengths to not lose his shit laughing the whole time.

On the other hand, it was positively adorable, and Dave struggled with that fact for a little while. They were both dudes, and dudes didn’t find their bros adorable. It would be a lil gay if they did. But then again, Dirk was a Big Gay and it wasn’t like that bothered Dave, no matter how much toxic masculinity and homophobia Bro tried to force on them. 

Besides, it wasn’t like Dave was in love, Karkat was just his bro who he found a little adorable at times.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know what happened to my update schedule or if I even had one in the first place. I spent a solid ten minutes staring at a calendar trying to figure it out. This is a disaster. Here’s chapter 4

Dave awoke to a familiar sound of something hitting his door, and he was up on his feet with a sword in his hands within seconds. It was still dark outside and Karkat was asleep under the desk. He didn’t bother changing out of his pjs before leaving his room and tearing the note off the door to his bedroom.

*Miss me? Come to the roof lil man.*

He crumbled the note in his hand to keep them from shaking. The other hand had a white knuckled grip on the hilt of his sword.

He moved quietly down the hall towards the door out to the roof, but each sound seemed thunderous in the silence of the house. Dave nearly drove his sword through the wall when the sound of running water suddenly filled the hallway, until he realized it was just Dirk, probably cleaning up after his own spar.

Sure enough, when Dave peeked into the bathroom, Dirk was hunched over the sink, shirtless and washing blood off of his face. He didn’t seem too worse for wear, considering that it was the first spar in almost a month. Dirk turned towards him carefully and stared at his brother.

“Keep an eye on him.” Dave said quietly, and hoped he understood. Dirk just nodded mutely and turned back towards the sink. 

The door out to the roof was open, and Dave could make out the silhouette of Bro against the trees surrounding the house. The sun was starting to rise, dying the sky red. It was total bullshit levels of dramatic, in Dave’s own personal opinion.

Bro turned around in an instant and fell into a defensive position. Fuck. Dave hated being the first one to attack. But it’d only be worse the longer he hesitated, so he readied his sword and advanced.

Not matter how quickly Dave moved, Bro moved faster. Every move Dave made was blocked or parried or dodged like he saw it coming a mile away. And yet he still wasn’t fighting back. He was toying with Dave, and it was frustrating as all hell. He moved back and advanced again, trying to shake Bro out of his flow, to no avail. He moved so much faster, Dave couldn’t track the movements, it wasn’t natural-

Bro got bored of just deflecting and slashed at Dave’s side, digging the blade deep into his side and sending Dave’s vision reeling for a moment. He stumbled back but didn’t make it a foot before Bro’s sword dug into his thigh and he fell to his knees. 

He stabbed his blade into the paneling of the roof and kicked Dave’s arms out from under him, knocking him off balance and sending him sprawling on his stomach.

Like a prey animal trying to stay hidden in plain sight, Dave went completely still, even as Bro’s foot slammed into the fresh wound on his thigh.

“Pretty damn pathetic little man.” Bro rumbled from above him, though his voice sounded distant. In fact, everything seemed a little distant. Probably due to the blood leaking out of his leg like it was a broken faucet and his blood was gross faucet water, probably filled with lead and-

 

Karkat woke up panicked. For a moment he didn’t really know why, until he took a deep breath and registered the scent in the air. 

Blood. Lots of blood, and it was Dave’s blood. He knew Dave’s scent (pine needles, apples, weird spices and something distinctly human and not entirely pleasant) better than he knew his own at this point, and his scent combined with the coopery scent of blood sent Karkat to his feet before he registered he was moving. 

He dashed out of the bedroom and turned down the hall at full speed, almost crashing into the wall due to his lack of friction. 

He was running down the hallway towards an open door and the sickening scent of his human’s blood when something damn near appeared in his path, blocking his way. He didn’t stop, and soon found himself on the ground, arms wrapped around his torso.

“Fuck you, let me go, you piece of shit!” Karkat hissed frantically in his native tongue, clawing desperately at the arms around him. In the back of his mind he recognized the light brown skin as that of Dirk, but he didn’t stop tearing into it until he found his struggles fruitless and went limp in his arms.

“I know I know I know.” Dirk was saying, his voice tight with a pain that Karkat knew he inflicted. “Trust me man, I want to go out there and help him too, but Bro would kill us, we don’t have a shot against him, Dave’ll be ok, I’m sure he’ll come in in a second and we can help patch him up, Karkat please.”

Bro. It was Bro who was doing this to Karkat’s human, to Karkat’s best friend, to the only being that Karkat felt like he could trust. Dave said dads were suppose to take care of you, keep you safe, and Dave’s dad, Bro, Bro was hurting him!? Karkat didn’t understand ‘family’ but from what he understood, this wasn’t how family was supposed to be.

He renewed his struggled and managed to cut Dirk deep enough for him to pull back.

“Shit, fuck, be careful! He, Dave, he told me to, shit!” Dirk started, but Karkat was already down the hall and out the door.

The sight that awaited him was worse than he thought. Dave was laying completely still on his stomach, and Bro’s foot was on his bloodied thigh, grinding down. He had a clear gash in his side and his leg was surrounded in blood, staining the roof tiles bright red.

Karkat didn’t think as he melded back into a dragon. His entire body down to his bone structure shifted and stretched and changed, and quite frankly, it hurt like hell, but he just winced and barely slowed his pace. In a few moments, the pain was over and Karkat leaped towards the humans.

The larger man was clearly too shocked by watching a kid transform into a whole entire dragon to react as Karkat swatted him away with a large paw, sending him stumbling of balance and cutting into his stomach.

He wasn’t a good fighter, he knew Bro could destroy him, so his only chance was to take Dave and run. He grabbed the back of his human’s bloodied shirt, and swung him up across his back. Before he could make it off the roof, Bro landed one powerful slash from his torso to his tail, but the dragon didn’t flinch. He had to get away.

He leaped off the roof, spreading his wings in an attempt to slow the fall. It wasn’t much of a success, but either way, as soon as his claws hit the ground, he sprinted through the forest as quickly as he could manage. For once, he was glad he was so small, he could maneuver through the trees in a way he knew other dragons couldn’t.

However, the wound in his side and *something* else was slowing him down. Some oppressive force that made him feel too big for his body and sent every sense he had askew, and he didn’t make it far before his vision spotted out completely and he felt himself stumbling and collapsing to the ground. His last conscious action was grabbing Dave from his back and curling protectively around him, using his torn wings as a shield.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be longer, but I decided to split it into two parts because there’s still so much to be written and I don’t want the chapter or the wait between chapters to be too ridiculously long.

Rose was barely awake when she first Saw them- a dragon with bright red scales, curled around a human, only visible by the pale hair poking out from under one of the dragon’s wings. Said dragon was bleeding bright crimson all over the unforgiving forest floor, and was wrapped around the person like the human’s life mattered much more than their own. 

She was dressed, out of bed, and pounding on her sister’s door within seconds.

A very drowsy and discontent Roxy greeted her with a tired glare. “Whaaaaaat?” She whined.

“Always a pleasure, sister dearest.” She teased. “But this is a matter of upmost importance. I require your assistance.”

“Upmost importance?” Roxy gasped, suddenly much more awake. “What’d you See?” 

“A dragon and a human they were protecting. They seem to be badly wounded, so we should gather Jane as well before proceeding.” Rose explained, watching the concern overtake her sister’s face.

“I’ll go get her! Meet you at the map!” Roxy didn’t wait for a response before dashing off towards Jane’s room.

Rose watched after her for a moment, before heading down the hall and into the living room. Against one wall was a huge mural of an antique-style map, some small sections circled in bright red. Rose stepped up onto the couch to place a finger on the right edge of one of the circles, one in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

“Is that where they are?” Roxy asked as she enter the room, hand holding the wrist of a drowsy but concerned Jane.

“Yes, I believe so. Come join me, so I can share my Sight with you.”

Roxy did so, letting go of Jane and standing beside her sister on the couch. She closed her eyes and placing her hand over Rose’s, focusing on her sister beside her.

Slowly, a vision began to appear in her mind, first blotches of red and green and brown, than vague shapes, until she could make out a curled up dragon. They appeared to be rather small, and were covered in wounds, both old and new. A particularly deep and bloody wound on their side appeared to be the most pressing concern. One wing was cast over what Roxy assumed was the human that Rose mentioned, though all she could make out was whitish hair. She mentally shook herself into focusing on her abilities, and then, with a pop and a flash of pink light, the two beings appeared in the living room and Roxy’s vision faded out completely.

Luckily, Rose caught her before she could fall too far, and placed her down gently on the couch, leaving her to rest for as long as she needed. 

“They do seem a bit worse for wear.” Jane commented as she slowly approached the dragon, still curled protectively around the human. Jane approached the pair and gently touched the dragon’s wing, but before she could move it to get a better look at the human, the dragon’s crimson eyes flashed open and they all but shrieked, exposing sharp teeth under lips pulled into a scowl.

Jane stepped back, holding up her hands in surrender. 

“Don’t touch. Don’t touch him.” The dragon growled, curling tighter around their human despite their apparent exhaustion.

“Jane is to heal you and your human.” Rose explained calmly, before grabbing a pair of scissors off the coffee table. The dragon stiffened, curling tighter around the person. “If you truly care for them, you will let her do so.”

“Are you... are you threatening me?” The dragon growled, pulling their claws beneath them and slowly, shakily rising to their feet. They carefully kept the human, now fully visible and very clearly injured, safely between their paws. 

“No, simply proving a point.” Rose explained, and dragged the blade of the scissors across her palm with barely a wince. Blood began to pool in her hand, and the dragon’s eyes widened in shock and confusion.

“Rose!” Jane scolded, rushing over to her housemate and taking her hand. “I told you to stop doing things like this!”

“The human hasn’t much time.” The dragon let out a strange but undeniably panicked noise at that. “It is merely the most efficient way to get my point across.” 

Jane huffed, laying her other hand over Rose’s and closing her eyes. Slowly, a light blue light surrounded their hands and when Rose pulled away, there was no evidence of her wound beyond a very faint scar.

The dragon blinked in amazement, leaning towards the pair of girls to sniff at their hands. Reluctantly, they sat down, still close to the human but no longer covering him.

Now that Jane could focus on him, she realized that he was, indeed, a boy. He couldn’t have been older than 16, about the same age as the younger siblings in the house if she had to guess. His hair was white and his skin was very pale, apparently not entirely from blood loss. However, the deep wound in his side and thigh had Jane worried, and she wasted no time kneeling down and pressing her hands gently against the bloodied parts of the boy’s clothes. They glowed the same light blue as before, and by the time the wounds were closed, Jane had to sit down, almost all energy draining from her.

“Come closer. I can’t really move.” She told the dragon with a strained chuckle. 

“You can wait-“ Rose started, but was cut off as the dragon moved closer and Jane placed her hands on them the second she could. The entire dragon was immersed in the bright light, and when it faded, nothing beyond faint scars showed on their bright crimson scales. They breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to look at the human who healed them, only to find she was slumped over on the ground. They let out an alarmed noise and looked to Rose.

“She’ll be alright.” Rose said, shaking her head in exasperation. “Perhaps I should get the others. See if they want to pass out in the living room as well.” 

The girl knelt down, put her arms under her friend, and lifted her. It took a considerable amount of effort, but she managed to bring her over to the other side of the couch from Roxy and lay her down there. 

“Now, I’m believe you have many questions, but I’m tired and I’m sure you two are doubly so. I can escort you to the guest room and you two should rest there until a reasonable hour. We can talk then, and I’m sure Jane will prepare you an unnecessarily large breakfast whether you want it or not.” She explained, already heading off in the direction of the guest room. 

Behind her, she heard an unnerving series of cracking and stretching noises, and when she turned back to evaluate the sound, a human stood in place of the dragon, a rather short boy with dark skin and darker hair. He was, unfortunately, naked, Rose realized as he kneeled down and lifted the other boy with relative ease. He was also quite easily evaluated as male.

“Hm. I didn’t assume you held so much strength right after transforming. To my understanding, changing forms so dramatically is quiet taxing.” 

“He is small.” He explained simply.

“Yes, quite skinny. Malnourished, I dare say. I assume his state was not your doing, but do look after him. Humans are rather fragile, compared to your kind.”

“You seem to know a lot about my... kind.” He prompted, tilting his head as he picked up his pace a bit to walk next to Rose.

“Yes, you are not my first dragon encounter. It’s not the world we intersect with, but things hardly stay in their neat little circles. Just look at where you are.”

The dragon only seemed more confused, and opened his mouth to ask more questions, but was cut off as Rose opened a door. It lead into a rather large bed room, rather plain but still comfortable and inviting, with neutral shades of grey and splashes of pale blue. 

“There are other guest rooms, but this was the largest one, and considering your own size, it seemed to be the best fit, in quite a literal sense I realize.” She explained, ushering the pair into the room. “Now do get some rest. I have a feeling tomorrow will be rather... taxing. Just mentally, I suppose, but taxing all the same.” She turned to leave, and then paused. “I’m Rose, by the way. Rose Lalonde. The girl who healed you was Jane Crocker, and the one passed out on the couch, if you noticed her, was my sister, Roxy. Further introductions are in order, but that, like many other things, can wait until tomorrow.”

The dragon opened his mouth, closed it, then introduced himself as Karkat. 

“Karkat, hm? A rather simple name. Doesn’t quite align with the other dragons I’ve met. Your names typically don’t flow so easily from the human tongue.”

“‘s what he calls me. Easier.” Karkat explained, looking down at the human in his arms and squeezing him a bit closer to his body, an unmistakable gesture of fondness and concern.

“And does he have a name?” Rose said, the end of her sentence nearly lost in a yawn. She was tired, and didn’t expect any conversation with the dragon as soon as he was in his room.

“Dave.” He hesitated. “Dave... Strider?”

The last name clicked with Rose, and she smiled faintly. 

“Strider hm? Interesting.” She waved her hand before she could go any further. “No matter. We can speak about it tomorrow. Rest now, you’ll need the energy.”

Karkat was more than willing to do so- he didn’t know how long he was unconscious, but clearly not long enough, judging by how exhausted he was. He gently placed his human on the bed, then lied down beside him. It wasn’t Karkat’s usual sleeping situation, but he was... terrified to leave his side, quite frankly, afraid he would wake up to the scent of Dave’s blood again, and not be able to save him this time. Besides, his pile was gone, so it wasn’t like he had a very good alternative. He pressed his head against the human’s chest, listening to his steady heartbeat as he drifted off.

—-

Dave awoke feeling uncharacteristically warm and well rested. There was a comfortably warm weight on his chest, as well as pressed against his side. For a second, he just allowed himself to enjoy the moment, before life caught up to him and he opened his eyes.

He found himself looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling, painted a light grey. As he slowly looked around, he didn’t find anything familiar other than the dragon curled up beside him, resting his head on his chest. He gently shook said dragon awake, because, what the fuck.

Karkat let out a series of disgruntled (and slightly adorable) noises, sitting up slowly and opening his eyes even slower. His face was freckled in scales and as he yawned, Dave saw his teeth were sharper than ever.

“What?” Karkat questioned sleepily, rubbing one bright red eye with a slightly clawed hand.

“What indeed, as in, what the fuck is going on?” Dave questioned, sitting up now that Karkat wasn’t on his chest, which, kind of an embarrassingly intimate situation, but that was also kind of the least of his concerns. As he sat up, he realized it wasn’t painful for him to do so- he was completely missing the wound in his abdomen, and as he moved his leg to fold it underneath him, he realized the wound on his thigh was gone too. What the fuck. His clothes were torn and bloody, but there was nothing left of the wounds beyond white scars. What the fuck. 

“How long have I been out?” Dave asked softly, running his fingers along the new scar on his thigh.

“Don’t know. Not long? Not long enough for... scar. Got healed.” Karkat explained, his voice rough with sleep. The poor guy sure took his time waking up.

“Ok, I got healed, but it still takes a while for things to scar over so cleanly, and last time I checked no amount of medical technology could change that.”

“Not... not medical. It was... magic? Glowing, blue, than you, I, we are... better? Just scars.” Karkat explained stiltedly, pointing to several scars on his own body.

“Oh, cool, great, magic. I have even more questions now.” Karkat nodded, looking just as confused. “Ok, well, tell me about this... magic, or whatever. What did you see? What do you know?”

He huffed, looking a bit frustrated. “We... when your... When your Bro hurt you, I... I took you and run. I got hurt, and something... some sort of pressure, like...” he paused, smiling and snapping like he had landed on some sort of Eureka. “Like when you took me to town! Like that, and then I, I passed out. Woke up in a big room here, with you. Living room? Couches, map on the wall. A girl, Jane, healed us. There was a girl named Roxy too? Rose lead us here. Said all... weird things. Weird girl. Tired.” Dave didn’t know if the tired comment was an evaluation of the dragon’s own state or the girls, but wasn’t allowed much time to think on it.

“Now that is just rude.” A voice interrupted from the doorway, and when the boys looked over they saw a blonde girl smirking at them from the doorway. She held a pile of clothes in her arms, and tossed them onto the bed once she had the boys’ attention. They both flinched away. “Rose Lalonde, pleasure to meet you Dave. Please change quickly and exit your room. I will be waiting outside to guide you to the dining room, where we will eat breakfast and go over what has occurred.” She didn’t wait for an answer before closing the door behind her.

The boys wordlessly exchanged a glance.

“Do you think we can trust her? She’s, she’s a little creepy, and what I heard from you doesn’t help my opinion either.” Dave whispered as he stood up and looked out the window. “Second floor, I could probably make it, but... it seems like we’re on an island? Like, I would pay money to rent this room, if I was into vacations or whatever. I can see the ocean, and like, all these weird tropical trees and shit. Like damn, this is a vacation spot if I’ve ever seen one, which I haven’t, unless you count like, on TV or whatever. There’s no one out on the beach though, it seems nice enough out, but the beach is deserted. So maybe we’re kinda alone on this island? Which is weird. I don’t... I don’t know what to do, Karkat.” 

“What if we jumped out the window and escaped? What then? We’re stuck on an island, and even if we weren’t... where would we go?” Karkat replied, completely unhelpful.

“Yeah. You’re right. I don’t... I can’t really go home. Bro would kill me.” Dave sighed. “Seems like we don’t have much of a choice but go along with her for now.”

“Just three girls. We could fight them if they tried to hurt you.” 

Dave noticed that Karkat said ‘you’, and not ‘us’, like he wouldn’t care if he was the one who got hurt. He tried not to think too hard about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to my own personal hell there’s so many characters now and I can’t write any of them


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update schedule? I’ve never met her

It was more than three girls, Dave realized as he arrived in the living room with Karkat and the girl who introduced herself as Rose. 

There was Rose, two girls sitting at the table and a fourth in the kitchen. There was one boy flitting back and forth with plates of pancakes in his hand, who stilled as soon as they entered.

All eyes were on them, and Dave instantly wanted to run.

“Good morning. Allow me to introduce our guests. Meet Karkat and Dave Strider, dragon and human respectively.” Rose introduced, signaling with her hand as she said their names. 

“Strider? Like, Jake’s boyfriend Strider!?” The one boy exclaimed, nearly dropping the plate currently in his hands on the floor.

“This is not Jake’s boyfriend if that’s what you mean, but yes, I do believe they are related.” Rose replied calmly, pulling out a chair and taking a seat next to a similar looking girl with hair dyed pastel pink, who also seemed to be very excited.

“Wait, you know my brother?” Dave asked. Every time these people talked he got more and more confused.

“We know of him, yeah! He’s my brother’s boyfriend!” The girl with skin almost as dark as Karkat’s and a fluffy mess of black hair replied, grinning. “Honestly, Jake only talks about two things, and those things are dumb movies and Dirk Strider!”

The pink haired girl cut in with a giggle and said that they were really cute, while the boy snapped that Jake’s movies were cool.

“...alright. So. My brother is dating your brother?”

The girl giggled, and nodded. “What a fun coincidence! Its almost like fate.”

“More accurately, I would say all Intersect Zones are connected, in a manner of speaking, and therefore the chance of Jake and Dirk getting together was more likely because of their locations of residence.” Rose cut in. “Now, please do sit down boys. We have much to discuss.”

“It sure seems that way, yeah.” Dave sighed, locating the nearest exit (a door out to a yard, it seemed?) and choosing the seat closest to it. It also happened to be the seat next to Rose, which was good. At least he kind of knew Rose. 

Karkat sat beside him and scooted his chair closer to Dave’s. Jane brought out a final pair of plates full of pancakes and set them in the center of the table, before sitting down between Karkat and the one other boy. There was an empty seat next to the dark haired girl, where Dave assumed Jake would usually sit.

“Let us start by introducing ourselves. I am Rose Lalonde, though you already know that. I can See into Intersect Zones, as we have begun to call them, and sense when things are not in their universes. That’s how I came across you two. You’re far from home, Dragon.”

Karkat growled softly, and shifted a bit further away from the girl.

“Nope, nah, this isn’t gonna cut it. You are spewing absolutely nonsense and I will not stand for it. Intersect zones? Seeing? Universes? Nothing you’re saying makes sense, please don’t assume I know things, I don’t know shit about fuck and I won’t stand for this.” Dave protested, and everyone seemed rather amused by his short rant. Karkat sighed.

“If you will allow us to get through introductions, I can explain.” Rose said impatiently. “Roxy, if you’ll please?”

“Hiya! I’m Roxy Lalonde! I teleported you here!” The pink haired girl said in bubbly excitement. “That’s my power, b-t-dubz. I can teleport things as long as I can see ‘em! Rose helps!”

“Hi! I’m Jade! I can just change the sizes of things! It’s not as cool as the others but.” The fluffy haired girl shrugged.

“I’m John! I can do this!” The one boy explained, as a wind began to blow around them, ruffling their hair and stirring up the napkins.

“And I’m Jane! I healed you two!” The last girl said, smiling at them in an unfamiliarity motherly way, because, damn, neither of them really had a mom.

“Ok, cool, I’m Dave, this is Karkat, what the fuck is going on here? What’s with this magic bullshit?”

“Every human has ‘magic’, so to say, but our universe doesn’t contain enough innate magic energy for most humans to harness said powers.” Rose began. “There are locations where our universe coincides with other universes that are more prosperous in this magic energy. We have dubbed those places ‘Intersect Zones’. In addition to allowing humans within their bounds to use magic, these Intersect Zones alter nature, as I’m sure you’ve noticed- animals are bigger, plants mutate in strange ways, etc. Also, creatures from each realm can accidentally wander from one universe to another, such is the case with Karkat here. I assume the place you reside intersects with Karkat’s home planet, and somehow he ended up with you.” Rose sighed. “I haven’t figured it out completely yet. It’s not like a universal Venn diagram, they intersect in strange ways that are hard to understand. If it helps to think of it as a Venn diagram, with Earth as one circle and Karkat’s planet of residence as the other and your home where they intersect, you are free to do so, but be aware that it is not so simple and neat.”

“If you need someone who isn’t a big ol nerd who phrases things in the most complicated and pompous way possible, you can ask me.” Roxy cut in, shouldering her sister and grinning. Rose rolled her eyes, but it was clear she was holding back a smile.

“Nah. I think I get it. Karkat’s universe and ours kinda smooshed together and it made the forest all weird and gave us dragons sometimes. I get it.” Dave recapped. “What I don’t get is why I’m not all magical and shit. I think I got ripped off, just getting stuck with Karkat and not getting any magic.” Dave nudged the dragon, who nudged him back harder and stuck out a slightly forked tongue from a smiling mouth. Cute.

“Magic can be a bit hard to harness, even within Intersect Zones. It tends to naturally occur in times of stress, and can be farther controlled from there, once the user is aware of their own abilities. Surely someone in your family I aware of their powers.”

As Dave thought about it, he realized that Bro probably had been using magic all this time. He just assumed Bro was really fast because he was the just that strong, but the magic, actually, made more sense. Which wasn’t a thought Dave ever believed he would have. Oh magic? Yeah that one checks out, makes sense, no red flags here, that’s the way it is and you’re dumb if you don’t know it.

“Yeah, no, I guess Bro’s been magic this whole time.”

“Dirk?” Jade asked, tilting her head like a dog in a way that reminded Dave more of Karkat at this point.

“No, Bro. My, dad.” Dave explained.

“Absolute shit fuck.” Karkat growled in response to the man being brought up. A few surprised laughs rose up from the table, but Rose quelled them as she knit her fingers together and leaned forward.

“Oh? What has Dave’s father done to deserve such animosity?” Roxy nudged her sister, trying to get her to stop, but to no avail. “Could it possibly be related to the malnourishment and wounds of one Dave Strider?”

“Hey, how ‘bout you mind your own fucking business.” Dave cut in, rising above his careful monotone for the first time in front of these strangers. “I get it, I’m like, in your debt or whatever, for you saving me and Katkat, but I really don’t think it’s any of your business.” He proceeded to grab a pancake off the nearest plate and shove as much of it as physically possible in his mouth at once, just to prove how much he wasn’t going to talk.

Karkat pressed his thigh against Dave’s, a subtle act of comfort, just to remind Dave he was there, both physically and emotionally, should Dave ever need him.

Rose blinked, before sitting back in her chair and untangling her fingers.

“I apologize. My behavior was, in fact, very inappropriate. I have a tendency to forego common decency in the name of investigation, and such actions are particularly prevalent around strangers. Each new person I meet is an enigma that I cannot wait to figure out. Being around these same five people gets dull, after a while, and I do want to put my Wikipedia-issued degree in psychology to use.”

“That’s not a thing, Rose.” Jane cut in.

The banter continued back and forth, until John went too far by throwing a piece of pancake at Jade, and Jane was forced to scold him and tell everyone to shut up and eat before the pancakes got cold.

—-

Dave ended up in the kitchen, helping Jane wash the dishes, because Jane was the one who asked the least questions and he felt a little lost and guilty and wanted to alleviate a bit of the debt he had to this household.

“So how’d you and Karkat meet, if you don’t mind me asking?” So much for asking the least questions. At least this one wasn’t too intrusive.

“He got stuck in a bear trap and I got him out. He couldn’t fly so he couldn’t go back to his planet or universe or whatever, so he stayed with me for awhile. I guess he’s better now, so.” Dave shrugged.

“And yet he doesn’t seem to be wanting to go anywhere.” Jane hummed, eyes flickering to the dining room, where Karkat and John were engaged in an playful (?) argument. “Still, it’s dangerous for him to be here. If he spends too much time outside an Intersect Zone, he will die. You guys are safe here, for now but... it’s dangerous for him to not be where he belongs.” Jane shut off the water and dried her hands. “Sorry to be a downer.” She laughed. “Tell Karkat and think on it, ok? I know you care for each other, and really, I think you’ll be fine, but you can never be to cautious.” 

Dave was left with a clean plate in his hands and a mess of emotions in his gut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uuuuuuuuh that should explain all of the Mysterious happenings? If there’s anything else that you still don’t understand hmu and I can either add it into this chapter/a later one or just explain it to you personally idk
> 
> Also I should really do some art for this because art is a thing I do but so is being a lazy ass so who knows if I’ll ever art


	7. Chapter 7

As soon as Karkat managed to escape the curious grasp of John, he rushed into the kitchen, where he found Dave standing alone and clutching a clean plate in his hands. He was staring completely blankly at the floor.

“Uh.” Karkat started, taking the plate gently from Dave and placing it on the counter. “Are you... ok?”

Dave blinked rapidly, turning to look at Karkat and sighing. “Yeah, I’m good. Just thinking.”

“How not like you.” Karkat retorted, and Dave smiled half heartedly. Karkat paused, concerned. “Let’s go to the room?”

He just nodded and followed.

—-

They ended up back in the room, with Dave pacing back and forth at the foot of the bed Karkat was curled up on, watching him.

“So. It’s dangerous for you to be here, you know?” Dave started, and Karkat instantly stiffened. “Like, you’re good, for now, but I was talking to Jane and... I just, I don’t know if this is where you should be. Like, you’re a fish out of- you’re like an epaulette shark at low tide- all high and dry, you can slow down your breathing and waddle back to water and you’ll live, but it’s not ideal, you’re like, risking your life just by existing you know?”

“I don’t know what a shark is.” Karkat stated simply, blinking slowly and trying to hide the swell of nervous emotions in his chest.

“Oh, they’re these big predatory fish, they’re rad as hell. The one I was talking about is little though, it can survive for a surprisingly long time out of water, and can move pretty well on land. They’re cute little fuckers, dog sharks, shit, I mean catsharks or dogfish, not dog sharks, uh, catsharks in general are pretty damn cute. There’s even a bioluminescent species, chain catsharks, all green and glowing and rad-” Dave paused. “What was I talking about again?”

“You were kicking me out. Even though this isn’t your house.” Karkat stated through a growl.

“Uh what? I don’t want to- I’m not kicking you out, I just, I want to help a homie out, ya feel? This was never like a permanent arrangement, we were just...” his voice hitched and he took a deep breath. “We were just chillin’ until your wing healed and than you were gonna fuck off to dragon land. We can probably get Roxy to teleport you back to the forest, and then yeah, you’re all set to... to go home.” He let the last part out as a sigh and ran his hand through his hair.

“I... I don’t want to, anymore.” Karkat whispered in a rush, clearly embarrassed. “I was, I am a mutant, dragons aren’t supposed to, to look like me, the scales and the size and the soft weird body, these scars-“ he motioned at his whole body “-high bloods gave me. Tortured me. For being a mutant, a mistake, a freak. I... I don’t want to go back, Dave.”

Dave was about to rush in and say he didn’t have to, it was fine, he was just looking out for him, but Karkat was already continuing.

“I know I have...” he huffed and muttered something in draconic, clearly trying to figure out how to translate his thoughts into English. “I am not... you don’t want me here anymore. I will-“

“Nope, wait, hold on, shut your stupid mouth, you big dumb idiot.” Karkat growled in vague offense, but the fact that the dragon was also kind of on the brink of tears nullified any amount of threat. “I’m not kicking you out. This may be hard to believe, trust me, I’m struggling too, but I like you, I want you here, I don’t want you to leave. You’re... you’re my best friend, shit, you’re the only friend I’ve ever had and I don’t want you to go. Especially not back to a world where you’re treated like shit, it’s just...” he ran his hand through his hair. “I was talking to Jane, it isn’t, it’s not really safe for you here, and it’s not like we thought this was going to be permanent, but... it seems like it would be even less safe in dragon land, considering you’re treated worse than garbage on a daily basis but... I just don’t want you to...” Dave sighed. “Whatever. You get it, just...” he shrugged, apparently burned out from this continuous display of sincere emotion.

“Ok.” Karkat said, and buried his head in his arms. Dave flopped down into the bed beside him, and the two of them just lied down in silence for awhile, processing what the other had said.

“What do we do now...?” Karkat asked after awhile.

“Whadaya mean?”

“We, are we just going to stay here? With a bunch of humans we barely know?”

“You got a point. Who knows when they’re gonna start demanding stuff? We don’t get treated this well for free, they’re gonna start asking us for shit.”

“You treated me well for free.” Karkat cut in.

“Please, I just wanted someone I could best at video games. Plus how rad is it to have a dragon friend, like hey dudes what’s up my best bro is a fuckin dragon, not that I would say that, or that anyone would believe me if I did but, hey, still cool right?”

Karkat huffed, stretching out on the bed and digging his feet into Dave’s side in the process. Dave huffed out a laugh and pushed his foot away, and despite the nagging anxiety in their guts, they were just glad to be safe and together for now.

—-

“Fuck!” Dave exclaimed suddenly, jolting up and startling Karkat in the process, who was trying to read one of the random novels that was left in the guest room to little success. “I’ve gotta call Dirk! He’s probably worried, damn.” 

He opened his contacts and clicked Dirk’s name, lifting the phone to his ear and listening for his brother’s voice.

“Dave?” A voice asked, and Dave struggled to recognize it as his brother’s- it sounded so hesitant and hopeless.

“What’s up Dirk?” He greeted calmly as he got off the bed to pace around the room.

“Shit! That really is you! Are you ok? Where are you? What happened? Is Karkat-“

“Alright man, one at a time. Karkat and I are totally fine, and we’re at your boyfriend’s house.”

“Uh, what? Why are you at Jake’s house? How’d you even get there? He lives like, way out there.”

“Uh. It’s a bit of a long story, and I was unconscious for most of it. How about you start?”

“Yeah, I mean, Karkat came running out of your room like it was on fire, which it’s not I checked, do you know you have a dvd case for ‘The Last Song’ under your desk? Hilarious by the way, cheesiest shit I’ve ever seen, the semi-opaque heads of Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth superimposed over a beach sunset, fucking golden.” He paused. “Uh. Sorry. Anyway, he was running down the hall and I grabbed him, like I tried to stop him but he shredded my arms, his nails are super fuckin’ sharp be careful around him, so I let him go so I would still have arms by the end of the day, sorry about that too I shouldn’t have let him past me, and uh, I saw him go full dragon, which was rad by the way, knock Bro across the roof, which was also rad, and then he took you and was gone. Jumped off the roof.”

“Mm, yeah, he took me out of the forest and then passed out and then a couple of girls teleported us to their house which is also where Jake lives.”

“Uh.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty wild over here. Just talk to Jake, he can probably explain it.”

“Yeah. I’ll talk to him.” The conversation lulled for a moment. “Are you sure you’re ok? Can I, fuck. When I talk to Jake I’m gonna see if I can come home with him, Bro’s pissed, I should leave, and... not to sound gay or anything, but I want to check up on you.”

“Dirk you are gay.” Dave laughed weakly, sitting down on the bed. Karkat instantly set his book down and came over, bumping his shoulder against Dave’s. “But yeah, you really should get outta there. Don’t know why you didn’t leave with Jake before, go eloping with your hot adventure boyfriend, they’d make movies about you.”

Dirk laughed softly, and Dave could practically see the tension leaving his shoulders as he listened to his brother talk. “Hey, I wasn’t gonna just ditch you, and I think bringing my lil bro would kind of mess up the romantic chemistry of eloping with my hot adventure boyfriend.” He sighed. “I’ll call Jake. See you soon, ok? Anything you want me to bring from home?”

“The shittiest cheese flavored snacks we got. They only have fucking, ingredients here. No snack foods beyond like, crackers. It’s wild. They eat a full three meals a day and also dessert and they all eat together at one giant table and it’s fucking wild. It’s like I’ve entered some sort of bizzaro universe. Which I guess I kind of have, but that’s not the point, Jake will explain probably. And bring my laptop? I would request my turntables but that’s like, a big thing for you to carry. I’ll get those fuckers back someday. Oh and uh-“ he lowered his voice and stood up again, moving away from a curious and vaguely indignant Karkat. “Bring that shit from under my desk. It’s a bunch of worthless bullshit but it’s important to Karkat, even the terrible cheesy romance movie, fuck, especially the terrible cheesy romance movie, he loves that shit.”

“Hahaha holy shit, your dragon likes rom coms?”

“‘The Last Song’ is a romantic drama, not a romantic comedy, I’ll have you know!” Dave exclaimed in his most indignant tone, and Karkat perked up at the sound on his favorite movie. He laughed. “Yeah, he loves it. Bring as many ironically bought movies as you can get your shitty little hands on.”

“Yeah alright.” Dirk sighed, finally sounding like himself again. “I’ll see you soon dude, bye.” He hung up without waiting for a response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Search up catsharks they’re so cute and cool I love them. Sorry for projecting my miscellaneous shark knowledge on to Dave, I just like sharks and I imagine Dave could spend a lot of time fucking around on google and, I don’t know, watching shark week. 
> 
> Also search up “The Last Song” which is one of the movies that showed up when I searched cheesy romance movies. It looks really bad and the cover really is one of the most hilariously cheesy things I’ve ever seen. The one described in this chapter is the one where the Miley Cyrus is looking towards the camera and not the one where she’s touching noses with Liam Hemsworth. I think it’s hilarious that I have to specify which movie cover I’m talking about when I say ‘semi-opaque heads of Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth superimposed over a beach sunset’ because it’s the same image but with different heads.
> 
> Uh. Sorry for rambling. Makes it easy to write Dave because I do the same thing sorry


	8. Chapter 8

“Karkitty! Davey! It’s movie night you have to come down to the living room!” Roxy yelled from outside the door, startling Dave and waking Karkat from his sunlit nap.

“Uh. I think we’re good.” Dave said, exchanging a glance with a disgruntled Karkat.

“I think so too!” Jade giggled. “Now come on, you may be new here but no one gets out of Friday Movie Nights!”

“Except Callie, but that’s because she’d die!” Roxy explained.

Karkat yawned, slowly shifting back to his completely human form, and rose to his feet. “I do not think we have a choice.”

The girls giggled from outside the room, apparently hearing him. Curse his total lack of volume control.

“It’s true! That’s why I brought Jade! She could totally pick you up and force you to come down to the living room! And she could kick the door down, I’ve seen her do it!

“Our door doesn’t even have locks, you could just open the door.” Dave protested as he opened the aforementioned door. “Who’s Callie?”

“She’s a siren and my girlfriend!” Roxy exclaimed, practically bouncing as she lead the pair to the living room. “She’s super pretty and nice and talented and I love her!”

“We intersect with the zone she came from!” Jade explained. “We don’t know a lot about it because she can’t really like physically speak English but Rose and Roxy are teaching her to sign language and reading and writing so she’s getting there!”

“How did you end up dating a girl you can’t talk to?” Dave asked, and Roxy nearly glared at him.

“She can communicate well enough from hand gestures! How did you end up with Karkat? His English couldn’t have always been that good.”

“Uh. Are you implying that me and Karkat are dating?” Dave asked, as some yet unknown emotion reared it’s unspeakable head.

“You’re not?” Jade asked innocently.

“No! He’s my bro! My dude! My totally platonic pal!”

“Oh!” Roxy giggled, and Dave found himself getting increasingly tired of the company of these excitable broads. “Sorry! You guys should date though! You’re soooo cute and you clearly care about each other soooo much! When you guys first got here, Kitkat wouldn’t let Jane even touch you until she proved she could help! Or so she said! I passed out!”

Dave just rolled his eyes and put his hands in his pockets, feigning complete disinterest, even as his face went bright red at the implications of Roxy’s words.

“My my my, what have I missed?” Rose asked smugly as the group entered the living room. “Dave is red up to his ears.”

“I do not know what you are talking about, Rosanne.” Dave said as smoothly as he could manage, trying to will his blush away.

“That’s not my name and you know it, David.”

“I didn’t actually, it was a stab in the dark for a chance at bothering you. Also my name isn’t David so we’re even.”

Rose smirked, but in a slightly different way then usual- growing up in the Strider household made you notice the smallest changes in someone’s expression. Rose almost seemed... fond.

“Stop bickering and choose some movies.” Jane scolded jokingly as she entered the room with a huge bowl of popcorn in her arms.

“I suppose you can do the honors, as long as you promise not to pull one of John’s classic Con-Air marathons.” Rose amended, waving a hand towards a shelf of movies next to the TV as she took a seat in the corner of the big sofa.

“It’s a good movie!” John protested through a mouthful of popcorn.

“I could forgive you for thinking that three years ago, but you’ve been watching it regularly for every year since and that particular crime cannot be forgiven.” Rose sighed, taking a single kernel of popcorn and popping it into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed before continuing. “I also do not respect the opinion of a man who talks with his mouth full.”

John just pouted this time.

“First of all, gross, everything about what just happened here is gross. And second of all, y’all got any romances? Preferably of the comedic variety so I don’t have to deal with Karkat’s sniffling the whole time?”

“You are a fan of romantic comedies?” Rose raised an eyebrow, and John burst out laughing. Karkat growled at him but that only served to spur him on.

“Nah, but Kitkat is.” Dave said fondly, throwing one arm around Karkat and using the other to ruffle his hair. Karkat huffed but settled against the taller man.

Roxy could barely hold back a laugh because shit, these guys really aren’t dating?

“We do not have any romantic comedies on disc, but we do have access to anything available on Netflix.”

“Cool, yeah, boot that shit up.”

—-

That shit was indeed booted up, and they spent the rest of the night watching shitty rom coms until Karkat fell asleep on Dave’s shoulder and Dave was forced to fireman carry the dude back to their room. To the amazement of all, Karkat didn’t wake up until the next morning.

—-

They slowly settled into a routine. Wake up, get to the dining room in time for breakfast, hang out in the living room watching TV or playing games with whoever’s around, eat lunch, explore/get a tour of the island, come back in time for dinner, than fuck off to their own room for the rest of the night, maybe come down for dessert, maybe not, go to sleep than start the routine over again the next day. The only days that really strayed from that basic routine were Fridays, where they had to come back down after dinner for the Friday Night Movies-Until-We-Pass-Out Marathon.

—-

Karkat has started hoarding again, but this time he didn’t keep it all in one neat pile- instead, his hoard was taking over the whole room- shells lined neatly against the foot boards, a palm leaf leaned against the window, a coconut shell balanced precariously on top of the lamp, so on and so forth. Additionally, now that he didn’t really have a pile, he didn’t sleep on it- he seemed perfectly content to cuddle up with Dave on their double mattress. 

And boy howdy did that dragon love to cuddle. Dave wasn’t sure if Karkat was actively seeking him out or if he just unconsciously pressed towards warmth in his sleep, but either way, not a morning passed without Karkat clinging to Dave’s side.

Honestly, Dave didn’t mind all that much. Sure, it lead to a few awkward mornings, and there was that one time when John burst into their room mid-cuddle and hadn’t stopped laughing about it for the rest of the day, but he liked that he would never get up without Karkat, because he physically couldn’t extract himself without waking him. Besides, the house was well air conditioned, maybe even a bit cold at times, and Karkat’s body heat was kind of nice- he ran a lot hotter than the average person (“low bloods are hotter than high bloods, and I guess my blood counts as very low,” Karkat had explained), but Dave had spent enough cold nights in his own house to complain. 

Another thing that started happening was Karkat giving ‘gifts’ to Dave. It wasn’t really necessary, they shared pretty much everything already, but Karkat was incessant.

The first gift was a bird skull, chipped and broken in places but still recognizable. Karkat had held it out to Dave and stared him down, as if daring him to not take it, but the human saw right through him- the dragon was nervous as hell. So Dave smiled and took it and thanked him with a ruffle of his hair- it was a thoughtful gift, all things considered- Karkat must have noticed his Shelf of Dead Shit and his interest in birds and combined them. It was sweet, and honestly Dave appreciated it. He kept in safe on the bedside table on his side of the bed.

The thing was, it didn’t stop there- a sun bleached crab claw, all the prettiest shells Karkat managed to collect, he even brought Dave a live beetle one time, and every time he’d look nervous and hopeful and his hands would shake as he presents to gift.

Every time he was helpless to do anything but accept it, placing it gently on the bedside table (except for the beetle, which he released when Karkat wasn’t looking, because as much as he appreciated the thought, he really didn’t want a beetle scuttling around their bedroom). All these gifts were pretty knickknacks at best and worthless pieces of garbage at worst, but when Karkat looked him in the eyes he was helpless to say no to him. 

He really was pathetically weak to the dragon. Sure, he’d grown close to all of the others at the house. John was fun and easy company, Jade was adorable and helped them get a lay of the island, Jane was always kind and helpful, Roxy could be overwhelming but always meant well, and Rose was witty and clever and sarcastic and mostly fun to be around, and certainly never boring. But even as he fell into an easy friendship with all the people in the house, his feelings for them never matched his feelings for Karkat. 

—-

“He’s courting you, you know.” Rose brought up one day when the two of them were alone in the living room, and Dave choked on his apple juice.

Dave managed an elegant ‘wuh?’ through his coughing and sputtering.

“Karkat, the crimson blooded dragon and your close friend, is displaying his romantic affection for you in a traditionally draconic way in hopes that you will return the sentiment.” Rose explained slowly, watching in amusement as Dave wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, still staring at her in shock.

“What, what makes you think that?” Dave sputtered, a bit dazed.

“The gifts, the shared room, the physical and emotional closeness- it’s all textbook. Assuming there were textbooks on dragon courtship behavior, which there are not.”

“How, you don’t, how do you know all this? Why should I believe this isn’t, that your not performing elaborate psychological warfare on me?”

“I question your use of that phrase.” Rose quipped, and something about her expression... closed off a bit.

Dave sighed. “You’re avoiding my question.”

“Nothing gets past you, hmm?” She sighed, settling back in the chair. “I... I have first hand experience with dragon courtship- a jade blooded dragon. We came across her much the same way we came across you.”

“I... what happened?” Dave asked, more subdued and cautious than Rose was accustomed to.

“Unlike Karkat, she had an important roll in her society.” Rose paused as Dave’s face twitched ever so slightly. “No offense, I apologize.” She paused a moment before continuing. “She was rather committed to me, but she... held a fondness for her job- looking after eggs and caring for young ones without any others to care for them.”

“She left you.”

“I didn’t give her much of a choice.” Rose said with a sad chuckle. “I cared as much for her as she did for me, if not more so, but I knew that Earth wasn’t the place she belonged. She would not have been happy here. I could not fill the void of her society in her heart, no matter what she would try to convince me.” She rose to her feet. “Allow me to advise you one thing- what you and Karkat feel for one another is not something that comes around often. Do not waste this as I did.” And with that she dismissed herself, leaving Dave to stew on her words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit there’s only one chapter left  
> (probably)  
> ((I might change my mind))  
> (((But the plan is only one chapter left)))


	9. Chapter 9

It was another week before Jake and Dirk arrived at the house.

“Jake!” Jade exclaimed, and barreled towards her brother as soon as the door opened. She was a bit taller than him, but he still managed to take her weight and spin her around a few times before setting her down.

Everyone else circled around Jake, welcoming him back and so on. It made it easy for Dave to talk to Dirk without too many interruptions.

“I hope you’re not expecting me to do a running leap into your arms.” Dave said smoothly, rather ineffectively fighting down a smile.

“I could totally catch you if you did.” Dirk replied, ruffling his little brother’s hair.

They’re conversation lulled for a second, before Dave said, “I’m, I missed you bro.”

Shit, look at him being all honest with his feelings. This whole ‘having friends’ thing had changed him.

“Right back at you dude,” Dirk smiled fondly. “And hey, good to see you too man,” he continued as he leaned around his brother to see Karkat fiddling awkwardly with the hem of his shirt.

He nodded. “Sorry. For your arms,” the dragon mumbled, clearly feeling pretty guilty about it.

“Eh, whatever,” he said with a shrug. “Hey, I don’t know, but for me personally, going from knowing three people to knowing nine is a bit much. You got a room we can hang in?”

“Oof, tell me about it. Imagine waking up in some unfamiliar room, going into the living room and having to deal with five strangers at once and also they’re telling you about super powers. Fucking super powers dude, bet Jake told you about it and wow is it bullshit,” Dave said, shooting a glance at Karkat as he began to head towards their room. Karkat just gave him a reassuring smile, like he knew that the brothers both wanted a bit of alone time to catch up.

—-

“So yeah, it turns out Jake can sail and I get sea sick really easily.”

Dave didn’t worry about suppressing a laugh as Dirk regaled him with the tale of how he got there, including a pilgrimage to a shitty little fishing town on the coast of Washington and the ensuing week long trip that Dirk mostly spent throwing up over the side of Jake’s small boat.

They spent awhile in content silence, before Dave looked over at Dirk and kept staring until Dirk looked back with a raised eyebrow.

“So. It turns out Karkat likes me.” Dave rushed out, silently cursing himself for sounding so juvenile.

Dirk just blinked, then let out an amused huff. “Yeah man. I told you about his determined acts of heroism to save you from Bro? It was like something out of a bad romance, if romances were more focused on child abuse and monster fuckers.”

“Which they could be,” Dave continued, glossing over the comment about child abuse- he didn’t really want to get in to that right now. “If Big Publisher wasn’t keeping the man down by refusing to publish monster smut,” he paused. “I don’t know if Karkat classifies as a monster though.”

“I think so. But like, he’s low on the scale. A coward’s monster, for babies.” Dirk reasoned, completely serious. “Like, the scale goes from Karkat to the fish man from The Shape of Water to complete eldritch monstrosities I think.”

Dave nodded seriously. After awhile of silence, Dirk sighed.

“I can’t believe my own brother is a monster fucker.”

“Hey-“

“No, I still love and support you but... it’s just not the future I expected for you, you know.” Dirk said in a skewed but still recognizable impersonation of a mom. “Are you sure it’s not just a phase? Maybe you just haven’t met the right human.”

Dave snickered and bumped his shoulder against Dirk’s. “Shut up, man.”

“No, you’ll never live this down. I’ll be on my death bed and I’ll pull you close to my gross gaunt old person face and I’ll say ‘I can’t believe my lil bro is a monster fucker’ and then I’ll die.”

“I can’t believe I missed you, you’re insufferable. I never even said I liked Karkat back.”

“But you do,” Dirk said, bumping his brother’s shoulder.

“But I do,” Dave sighed in agreement.

“So what’s the plan? Are you going to romance him back in the dragon way?”

Dave pondered it a moment before smiling. “Yeah, did you bring the shitty romance movies?”

—-

The first gift was hardly a gift at all- he was just giving Karkat the contents of his hoard back. But Karkat had looked from the pile of random shit in his arms to Dave’s face to his arms to his face and back again, the dragon’s face confused and hopeful and hesitant all at once. He settled on just taking the pile with an embarrassed thank you.

—-

The next gift was the first of the shitty romantic movies brought from the Strider estate.

“Here, dude. Dirk brought some movies, thought you might like this one.” And he held out the DVD case for Whatever It Takes.

Karkat again flicked his eyes back and forth between Dave and the presented gift, before smiling and taking the DVD. His eyes betrayed the tentative hopefulness the dragon held in regards to the gift.

He stared at the ridiculously cheesy cover of the movie before pouting. “I don’t want to watch it with everyone else,” he complained, looking up at Dave.

“Alright you colossal baby, I’ve got a laptop, we can watch it just the two of us.” Dave said with a chuckle. 

He took the DVD case back (with Karkat looking very betrayed at such actions) and slid the DVD into the disk player of his laptop. He opened the closet and took out all the spare pillows that were stored there, and stacked them on either side of the bed as his laptop booted up. He swung the blanket over the piles, and carefully crawled under the blanket.

“Pillow fort dude.” Dave explained as Karkat stared at the structure in apparent confusion. “If we’re gonna watch this shitty movie at least let me watch it in my sick pillow fort.”

Karkat huffed at the insult of his favorite genre, but joined Dave, crawling in just as carefully as the human did, if not more so. 

Dave started the movie, and Karkat watched the opening credits in rapt attention.

—-

Dave kept giving Karkat movies, and Karkat kept excepting them with befuddlement, though he grew more excited and hopeful each time. Dave could tell that Karkat didn’t quite believe that the human was courting him back, but he was starting to let himself hope.

—-

Dave was almost out of movies. He was wondering how he would convince Jake to boat him out to the nearest... wherever people got movies. He only had one left, and if Karkat didn’t make his next move when presented with Drive Me Crazy, Dave would be screwed.

So he spent the movie carefully watching Karkat, the way the colored lights of the laptop flickered over his profile, and all he succeeded in doing was falling more in love with the dragon. He was worrying his lower lip with his fangs, and Dave was tempted to run a finger over those lips, both to feel their softness and protect them from the sharp teeth. He held back, opting instead to fold his hands together to keep him from doing anything rash.

The movie buffered for a moment, and Karkat’s eyes met Dave’s. They were the typical draconic red they faded into when Karkat was watching movies, big, round and expressive, dimly lit by the laptop screen. They softened from excitement to fondness as they held each other’s gaze, and Dave could do nothing but stare as Karkat leaned in.

The movie inconveniently started that moment, but both of the boys were too distracted to notice it. 

Karkat’s lips pressed against Dave’s, and despite the fact he had been waiting for this moment, the human flinched away.

Karkat instantly pulled back, his face looking scared and helpless in a way it hadn’t in months.

“I’m... I’m s-so sorry I, the gifts, I thought you were courting me back, but of course you weren’t humans don’t court, I’m such an idiot forget this happened I’m so sorry.” Karkat stumbled, shuffling away and inevitably knocking the pillow fort over. The pillows collapsed behind him and he got tangled in the blanket and rolled off the bed with a small startled yell.

Dave gasped, flicking on the bedside lamp and leaning over the edge of the bed, pulling at the blankets until a very disgruntled and embarrassed Karkat poked out. Dave couldn’t hold back a laugh, until he saw the look of betrayal on Karkat’s face, the tears welling up in his eyes, and all amusement instantly drained from the human.

“Karkat...” he said softly, laying down on his stomach and reaching his hands out to cradle the dragon’s face. “Dude, I was courting you.“

“Humans don’t-“

“Humans don’t tend to fall in love with dragons either, but here I am.” Dave laughed, and watched as the pain faded from Karkat’s face, and the dragon broke into a grin.

“You- really!?”

“Yep, sorry for the whole, pulling away thing. I’ve never done a kiss before and like, I didn’t want to screw it up, you know?” Dave couldn’t fight down the giddy smile on his face.

“I know,” Karkat said, “Dragons don’t... dragon’s don’t kiss at all, I just saw the movie humans do it and thought-“

“Yeah.” Dave laughed.

“Yeah.” Karkat concluded.

They stared at each other for a moment, utterly love struck.

“Hey, want to try that kissing thing again?” 

Karkat repositioned himself, hands on the edge of the bed, and Dave leaned up. They stared at each other a while longer, before closing their eyes and leaning in.

It wasn’t a good kiss, by any stretch of the imagination. Neither of them knew what they were doing. Karkat’s fangs were poking Dave’s lower lip. Their noses were awkwardly smooshed together. Their lips were stretched and twitching with the effort to not smile.

But when they pulled back, and looked at each other, they both knew they wouldn’t trade this for the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh. Huh. Here we are. I don’t think I’m satisfied with this as an ending, so I’ll probably write an epilogue, but until then, tell me what you think! Y’all’s support has meant the world to me, thank you so much for sticking with me :’)
> 
> Also lemme talk about one of the movies real quick- 2000’s Whatever It Takes, starring Shane West, Marla Sokoloff, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, and James Franco. The theatrical release poster is fucking ridiculous I love it. Also, it’s apparently based off French classic Cyrano de Belgerac (with less incest and I think pedophilia? I don’t recall), but I read the plot summary and that one does not check out. I watched Cyrano de Belgerac, and it is, as far as I can tell, nothing like Whatever It Takes. I have not watched Whatever It Takes tho so I can’t be sure. Though I guess if 10 Things I Hate About You is based off Taming of the Shrew anything goes. Modern adaptations of old ‘romances’ are weird.


End file.
